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When I first heard of L Ron Hubbard in the early 1950s he was touting dianetics, which as a young teenager actually made sense to me. Not much later when it evolved into Scientology, I saw that as a Parody/Satire of Christianity. Later I began think of it as a religion for high profile atheists that were afraid to offend the media by fully coming out of the closet.
Now 50+ years later, I still think I was right. It is basically a religion for Atheists who are afraid to publicly admit they are Atheists.
You could be right about that, although much the same could be said of Buddhism. Neither religion has a god on offer, which leads to some confusion about whether they are really, in the conventional sense, a religion or just a self-help methodology. Some Buddhists take vows and dress in funny robes and have liturgies and I suppose some Scientologists have equivalent things they do, that make Scientology seem more religious.
Perhaps it could be said that Buddhism and Scientology, while very different in the actual worldview and structure they promulgate, do have this in common: you don't have to believe in god(s) (though you can, if you want, it's really a matter of indifference) and you get a prefabricated way of approaching life and dealing with your issues.
Oddly, Buddhism and Scientology do both make unverifiable claims about exalted beings (boddhisattvas for the Buddhists, narratives about galactic emperors for the Scientologists). In both cases, I don't see what these legends add to the system and I see a lot that they do to undermine it. But that's just me. I think some people need some kind of esoteric, "insider's" knowledge that is veiled to the uninitiated, or they don't feel special enough.
I remember them years ago when they used to sit at a card table outside of our local K-Mart. They had two tin cans with wires soldered to them that were hooked to some kind of meter. You would hold one can in each hand and the meter told you how bad off you were, and how much you needed their service to "clear" you.
I always just ignored them, but I noticed the foreign Jesus people in the white suits who were begging at the other door were afraid of them.
If I had known that they had aliens and a trillion year history, I might have tried the can meter.
Celebrities are not attracted to Scientology. There are a few who have been in a looooog time and have invested too much time and money to admit to being wrong now. Most of them are not highly educated and joined back when it was trendy or just wear the label because their parents did. But Scientology tries to get wannabes by offering courses on breaking into the biz and such.
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My friend goes to the church thats based in L.A. and has invited me.....
I think it'd be pretty intriguing, lol
Your friend doesn't go to church, he attends classes or fundraisers, everything costs money. And you won't see anyone famous if you go there but I like you to go anyway and report back
There aren't that many Scientologists left in the world. Very very few. The whole thing will probably collapse in my lifetime.
Hubbard's great grandson has been very vocal about how corrupt this organization is.
I would never call Scientology a religion. Scientology is a scam. I've read some very disturbing things about how they treat the children of the members.
I wonder why celebrities are attracted to Scientology. What does it have to offer that traditional religions in the U.S. don't?
I think they worship the money and the glory of materialism. Whenever you look at their brochures, they keep showing off their beautiful buildings and being proud of them.
They use dishonest ways to gain as much money as possible. They have lawsuits against them, and use intimidation techniques to keep people under control.
And there is something really creepy going on. I went to a worship service once (to see what it was about) and they put this tape on...instead of preaching... some bunch of nonsense repeating over and over again. (like stamp your feet and be happy that you can see the walls or something, I can't remember). But this was the weirdest dumb thing I ever saw. I was expecting the lady in charge to apologize for the stupidity of the service. But she seemed to be taken by it and asked me wasn't it wonderful. Like someone did something to her brain and she didn't hear the same thing I did. Maybe they are hypnotized to control them or something.
I wonder why celebrities are attracted to Scientology. What does it have to offer that traditional religions in the U.S. don't?
Scientology has a founder with a huge catalog of acknowledged fictional works. That fact does tend to make the whole of Scientology vastly less believable than other religions. And the very Sci-Fi way that L Ron Hubbard's religious texts read is rather telling as well. When somebody was in the business of inventing make-believe stuff for a living before they became some sort of enlightened prophet figure, it doesn't seem terribly credible.
Is there any other founder of a religious movement with the same sort of background? Somebody who made a lot of money selling fictional books, movies, comic books or whatever who then founded a very Sci-Fi sounding religion they claim is true and not fictional?? I don't know of anybody else who did that, but I can't claim to know about every religion ever.
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